1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to athletic pads used to prevent injury during lacrosse or other contact sports. More particularly, the invention relates to an athletic pad assembly that allows removal of an outer pad. Specifically, the invention relates to a separate shoulder pad and sternum protector assemblies which are connected to an undershirt that may have a plurality of additional pads.
2. Background Information
Athletic pads are well known and used in a variety of sports including lacrosse and football. Shoulder pads typically used in football and lacrosse have a neck opening located between two hard shoulder portions which connect at both the front and back below the player's neck. The shoulder pad may be a two piece unit split along the centerline of both the front and back. The back is connected with riveted plates, while the front may be connected with a draw string or plates. The shoulder pad assembly is a ridged unit which redistricts movement of the player. While the player is protected from potential injury, mobility is limited and it is cumbersome to clean and maintain the pads due to their size.
An alternative to the hard style pads are soft pads. Soft pads may be placed within an athletic garment or on the outside of the athletic garment. To locate the pads within the garment, the pad is stitched within a pocket in the garment and is permanently fixed. In an alternative arrangement, soft pads are stitched to the outside of the garment instead of located within a pocket. The soft pads provide much greater mobility for the player since he is not restrained by a ridged one-piece should pad. Nevertheless, the soft pads suffer from a lack of protection. The soft pads cannot withstand the force of harder hits and the player may be injured more readily when wearing soft pads instead of ridged shoulder pads.
One attempt to overcome the problems of the hard shoulder pads and the soft shoulder pads is the Rhinoskin by Brine. The Rhinoskin shoulder pads have a soft pad system covering the entire rib section of a player and extending upwards around the neck to cover the player's shoulders. Further, the soft pads continue down the shoulder blades of the player about half way down his back. On the front side, a loop is stitched near the collar bone area of each side and includes hook or loop on the outside. Similarly, on the back side, a loop is stitched near the shoulder blade of each side and includes hook or loop on the outside. A hard pad, can then be located between the front and back loops on either or both sides. The hard pad includes a length of material with either hook or loop that passes through one of the loops and is wrapped around the loop and secured to the top of the loop.
While the Rhinoskin prior art is adequate for the purpose for which it was intended, there remains needs that must be satisfied in the art.